Notorious Narcos

Pablo Escobar May Be A Netflix Star, But These 30 Narcos Deserve A TV Show, Too

Netflix’s new show Narcos chronicles the life of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who was the richest criminal in history with a net worth of over $30 billion dollars. Unsurprisingly, the life of one of the world’s most violent and successful criminals makes for one of the best TV shows out right now.

Narcos has been a hit with viewers and critics, which probably means that competing TV executives are thinking about making a Narcos of their own. With the life of Pablo Escobar already taken, they might have to pick a different drug lord. Luckily, there are plenty of others to choose from.

Juma Khan

US DOF

Juma Khan ran the Taliban’s opium production and heroin smuggling operations after the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan. He was arrested in Indonesia in 2008 and extradited to the U.S. He is currently in plea negotiations after it was discovered he was working as an informant for the U.S. on Taliban operations and other drug smugglers.

Haji Bashar

AP

Haji Bashar was an Afghan drug lord who supported the Taliban before working as an undercover agent for the U.S. The U.S. asked him to come to New York for a debriefing. Bashar agreed after being told he would not be arrested for smuggling heroin into the U.S. He was arrested 10 days after his arrival and is currently in jail in the U.S.

Naw Kham

Naw Kham was a major heroin trafficker in Burma who was a subordinate of Khun Sa. He took over Sa’s smuggling operations after he turned himself in to Burmese officials. He was arrested for killing 13 Chinese sailors in 2011 on the Mekong River in what is known as the Mekong River Massacre. He was imprisoned in China and was executed by lethal injection while in prison.

Khun Sa

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Khun Sa was a Shan warlord in Myanmar in the 1960s who became known as “The Opium King” as an opium trader in the Golden Triangle, which covers area in Myanmar, Laos and Thailand. The U.S. issued a warrant for his arrest in 1991 for importing heroin into the country. He surrendered to Burmese officials in 1996 to avoid being extradited to the U.S., but the country did not file any charges. He lived the rest of his life in Rangoon.

Jesus Labra Aviles

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Jesus Labra Aviles was a top lieutenant in the Tijuana drug cartel. He was a prominent businessman in Tijuana who was a mastermind behind many of the cartel’s smuggling techniques. He was arrested in 2000 while watching his son’s soccer game and was extradited to the U.S. He pled guilty to drug smuggling in 2009.

Juan Garcia Abrego

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Juan Garcia Abrego became the head of the Gulf Cartel after transporting cocaine for the Cali Cartel. In 1995 he became the first drug trafficker to ever be placed on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List. He was arrested in 1996, extradited to the United States and is currently serving a prison term in a U.S. federal supermax prison.

Omar Trevino Morales

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Omar Trevino Morales was one of the leaders of the Los Zetas drug cartel. He is suspected of several murders and kidnappings throughout the 2000s. He was captured in 2015 and is currently serving a prison sentence at a Mexican maximum security prison.

Rafael Caro Quintero

El Universal

Rafael Caro Quintero founded the now disintegrated Guadalajara Cartel in Mexico. He was suspected of kidnapping and killing three Americans, including DEA agent Enrique Camarena Salazar. Quintero fled to Costa Rica but was caught and convicted of murder in Mexico in 1985. He was released in 2013 after winning an appeal. Another arrest warrant was issued, but he remains at large.

Ramon Arellano Felix

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Ramon Arellano Felix was a drug trafficker working with the Tijuana drug cartel in Mexico. He was known as one of the most vicious members of the cartel and is suspected of killing 12 members of a family who were related to someone who owed money to Felix. He was killed in 2002 when he engaged in a gunfight with a police officer who pulled him over at a traffic stop.

Hector Beltran Levya

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Hector Beltran Levya took over the Beltran-Levya Cartel after his brother’s death in 2009. The cartel is responsible for multi-ton drug shipments and numerous murders and political assassinations. He was arrested in 2014 while eating lunch with a political activist in a raid in which no shots were fired. He is currently serving time in a Mexican maximum security prison.

Angie Sanclemente Valencia

Angie Sanclemente Valencia was a former Colombian beauty queen who started her own drug syndicate. She recruited other models, whom she referred to as her "unsuspicious, beautiful angels,” to transport her cocaine to England from Argentina. She was arrested in Argentina in 2010, released in 2013 and deported back to Colombia.

Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez

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Jorge Eduardo Costilla Sanchez was a former Mexican police officer who became a drug lord in the Gulf Cartel in Mexico. He took control of the cartel in 2007. Los Zetas split from the Gulf Cartel around this time and the two cartels waged a bloody war while the Gulf Cartel was subject to much infighting. He was arrested by Mexican Marines in 2012.

Vicente Carillo Fuentes

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Vicente Carillo Fuentes was the head of the Juarez Cartel during a war between the Sinaloa and Gulf cartels. He was responsible for many revenge assassinations and was arrested in 2014. He is currently serving time in a Mexican maximum security prison.

Ivan Velazquez Caballero

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Ivan Velazquez Caballero was one of the drug lords of the Los Zetas drug cartel. He earned the nickname “El Taliban” for his preference for decapitation. After he was captured in 2012, he admitted to making $30 million per month. He was extradited to the U.S. in 2013.

Miguel Trevino Morales

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Miguel Trevino Morales took over command of the Los Zetas drug cartel after the death of Heriberto Lazcano. He was suspected to be responsible for a large amount of violence in Mexico, including the 2011 San Fernando Massacre, in which 193 people were abducted from buses and then tortured and killed. He was arrested in 2014 and is in a Mexican maximum security prison.

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano

AP

Heriberto Lazcano Lazcano was the leader of the Los Zetas drug cartel. He was a member of the Mexican Special Forces but deserted after eight years. He was recruited to serve as an enforcer by the Gulf Cartel and was famous for his torture techniques and feeding his victims to lions and tigers that he kept on a ranch. He was killed in a shootout with the Mexican Navy in 2012, and his body was taken from a funeral home by an armed gang.

Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano

Luis Fernando Sanchez Arellano was the leader of the Tijuana Cartel, one of the most violent criminal organizations in Mexico. He ran the cartel along with his six brothers, four sisters and mother. He was arrested at a Carl’s Jr. in 2014 while watching a World Cup match between Mexico and Croatia and is currently serving time in a Mexican maximum security prison.

Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno

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Juan Jose Esparragoza Moreno was a former member of the Dirección Federal de Seguridad police agency in Mexico who founded the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1970s. After that cartel disbanded, he worked with the Juarez Cartel and later the Sinaloa Cartel. He is still active and remains at large, despite a $5 million reward offered by the U.S. for information leading to his capture.

Servando Gomez Martinez

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Servando Gomez Martinez was the co-leader of the Knights Templar cartel and later leader of the La Familia Cartel. He took over operations of the Knights Templar cartel after Nazario Gonzalez was (falsely) reported as killed. He was arrested in 2015 in a raid by Mexican Federal Police in which no shots were fired.

Nazario Moreno Gonzalez

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Nazario Moreno Gonzalez was one of Mexico’s most wanted drug kingpins who headed the La Familia Michoacana Cartel before heading the Knights Templar Cartel. Gonzalez ran his cartel like a religious cult, giving his employees Bibles and strict codes of conduct. He also donated much money to the Michoacan area of Mexico, where he was revered. His death was announced after a two-day gunfight in 2010, but no body was recovered. Police found him alive in 2014 and killed him in a gunfight while trying to apprehend him.

Sergio Villarreal Barragan

EPA

Sergio Villareal Barragan was a former Mexican Federal police officer who later worked for the Beltran-Levya cartel. He rose through the ranks of the Beltran-Levya cartel and achieved the rank of Lieutenant. He was arrested by Mexican Marines in 2010 and extradited to the U.S. in 2012.

Arturo Beltran Leyva

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Arturo Beltran Levya was head of the Beltran-Levya cartel in Mexico after the cartel broke away from the Sinaloa Cartel. In 2009, Mexican Special Forces raided a large house where Levya was having a Christmas party. After a shootout, Levya managed to escape. He was later found staying in a luxury apartment. Mexican Marines attacked the apartment with helicopters and tanks and killed Levya after an hours-long battle.

“Freeway” Rick Ross

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“Freeway” Rick Ross ran a cocaine empire from Los Angeles that sold drugs throughout the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. His profits were estimated at roughly $850 million per year. He was arrested in 1996 after being set up by his former cocaine supplier and was sentenced to life in prison. After appeal, the sentence was later reduced to 20 years, and he was released in 2009. He released a book about his life in 2009 titled Freeway Rick Ross: The Untold Autobiography.

Amado Carillo Fuentes

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Amado Carillo Fuentes became the leader of the Juarez cartel in Mexico after assassinating his former boss, Liborio Deleon. He was regarded as one of the most successful criminals in history and had an estimated net worth of $25 billion. He died while undergoing extensive plastic surgery in 1997. The doctors who performed the surgery were later found dead inside steel drums.

Curtis “Cocky” Warren

PA

Curtis “Cocky” Warren was a British drug trafficker who was formerly Interpol’s “Target One.” He was once listed on the “Sunday Times” Rich List after his house in the Netherlands was raided and police confiscated cocaine, heroin, marijuana and guns totaling over £125 million in value. He was arrested and imprisoned by Dutch police in 1998. Despite being accused of running his drug operation from prison, he was released in 2005 and arrested again by British authorities in 2007.

Ismael Zambada Garcia

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Ismael Zambada Garcia was a former farmer who is now is one of the three leaders of the Sinaloa cartel and handles the cartel’s logistical operations. He is still at large and has had plastic surgery to change his appearance. There is a $5 million reward for his capture in the U.S.

Osiel Cardenas Guillen

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Oseil Cadenas Guillen was the former head of the Gulf Cartel in Mexico. He rose through the ranks of the Cartel and seized power after Juan Garcia Abrego was arrested in 1996 by killing his friend and main competition, Salvador Gomez. He was arrested after a shootout with the Mexican military in 2003 and was extradited to the United States, where he was sentenced to prison.

Manuel Noriega

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Manuel Noriega was the dictator of Panama from 1983-1989. He was a CIA asset who provided intelligence about communists in Central and South America and allowed weapons to be sent to insurgency forces backed by the U.S. He was also a cocaine trafficker and was indicted for drug trafficking in Miami. The U.S. invaded Panama in 1989, captured Noriega and extradited him to the States, where he was convicted and sent to prison.

Frank Lucas

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Frank Lucas dominated the New York City heroin trade in the ‘70s through a creative supply chain management solution. He cut out the middleman by hiding the heroin in the coffins flying directly from Vietnam to the U.S. during the Vietnam War. Although Lucas was eventually caught and his $54 million fortune seized, he did get out of jail in 1991 and even attended ComicCon to promote the 2007 biopic American Gangster.

“El Chapo” Guzman

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Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo,” is the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel in Mexico. He is the most powerful drug trafficker in the world according to the United States Department of the Treasury. Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $1 billion and concluded that his influence and power is greater than Pablo Escobar’s when he was alive. He recently escaped from jail (for the second time) through an elaborate tunnel dug underneath his cell.